Haiti: Disaster Could Cause Diplomatic Confrontation

It is strange how disasters, the desire to help out the victims, and political, diplomatic and military issues and sensitivities can sometimes merge into a potential international crisis.

That’s what is apparently happening as Taiwan is dispatching a military aircraft carrying aid for earthquake-hit Haiti.

According to Reuters, the aircraft has to refuel in the U.S. on its way to Haiti, and the U.S. will allow it to land “in the United States for the first time, a U.S. official said on Friday, a move which could anger the island’s political rival China.”

Again, Reuters:

The move comes at a time of increased friction between China and the United States, at odds over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, exchange rates, trade quarrels, climate change policy and Google Inc.’s dispute with Beijing over hacking and censorship.

Haiti is one of Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies (one of just 23 countries that recognize Taiwan), and it has been reported that Taiwan’s president would personally accompany an aid delivery to Haiti later this month.

According to the Northwest Asian Weekly:

Since the two sides split amid civil war six decades ago, China has used aid to try to persuade countries to cut relations with Taiwan and weaken the self-governing island’s claim to independence. Meanwhile, Taiwan has used financial support to try to keep the few small, mostly impoverished nations that recognize it.

And, “A cargo plane left Beijing on Jan. 16 carrying $2 million of China’s promised $4.2 million aid package for the quake-hit island, with which it has no diplomatic ties.”

It is well known that China has vowed to bring Taiwan under Chinese rule, including through the use of force if necessary. China strongly opposes military contacts between the island nation and the United States.

On the other hand, while the U.S. severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, under the Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S. is required “to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character”, and “to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan.”

According to the Reuters article, the U.S. “is obliged by the Taiwan Relations Act to help the island defend itself if attacked.”

Finally, still according to Reuters, “U.S. and Taiwan officials declined to give details of the cargo aircraft’s mission, but local media said the plane was an air force C-130 turboprop plane,” and

In another move that could upset China, Taiwan said U.S. officials would let island President Ma Ying-jeou stop in the United States next week on a trip to Latin America. China has made no comment so far.

It is certainly disconcerting how even humanitarian disasters can lead to political and diplomatic confrontations between nations.

Read more of the Reuters article here.

Image: Courtesy taiwanairpower.org